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The Big Picture
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Seinfeld
Season 5’s episode “The Bris” is one of the show’s most offensive because of the character of the mohel. - Jason Alexander complained about the portrayal of the mohel, calling the character anti-Semitic.
- Alexander’s criticisms lead to changes in the episode, softening the mohel, who remains annoying and offensive in the final episode.
Seinfeld might have called itself a show about nothing, but it was definitely about something. Learning lessons and hugging weren’t allowed, so rather than our protagonists coming together at the end of an episode, they were getting their comeuppance for whatever selfish acts they’d committed that week. That approach meant more storylines that pushed against the boundaries and sometimes offended, such as “The Puerto Rican Day,” which falls into bad tropes and even has Kramer (Michael Richards) stomping on a burning Puerto Rican flag.
Another of Seinfeld‘s most offensive episodes was Season 5’s “The Bris.” It was a wild and uncomfortable half hour, where a man jumping to his own death is played for laughs, crazy conspiracies about pig men play out, and one minor character is such an uncomfortable parody that Jason Alexander, the actor behind George Costanza, told Larry David he wouldn’t be in it unless the episode was rewritten.
“The Bris” Has Plots That Are Bizarre, Even by ‘Seinfeld’s Standards
Seinfeld might be the greatest show ever made in the opinion of many (including this writer), but even the best shows are going to have some clunkers. The first season of Seinfeld is an odd one trying to find its way, and the finale was hated for losing it, but in between, the series became a weekly staple of pop culture. In Season 4, Seinfeld really took off, so it’s a bit of a surprise that one of its worst episodes would happen in Season 5.
“The Bris” is the fifth episode, beginning with Jerry (Jerry Seinfeld), George (Alexander), Elaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus), and Kramer (Michael Richards) at a hospital where their friends have just become parents to a baby boy. Jerry and Elaine look on in disgust as they listen to the birth story, but George is more concerned about staring out the window at the parking lot several floors before, proud that he found a spot right near the door. To no surprise, Kramer shows up late and gets lost, giving one patient directions to the elevator, who then is shown running off as hospital employees chase him. Meanwhile, hearing squealing noises, Kramer enters a room before running out, screaming, “It’s a pig-man!”
Kramer spends much of the remaining time going on about the pig-man, rambling about government conspiracies, and deciding to rescue the poor, deformed half-man, half-pig. That’s a strange subplot that doesn’t fit Seinfeld very well. Kramer might be aloof, but Seinfeld is set in reality, so for him to speak about conspiracies and save a human that’s half pig goes too far and over-the-top, even for Seinfeld. That pales in comparison, however, with what George goes through. All four of them watch on in horror as the chased patient ends up on the roof and jumps off, landing on George’s car. Costanza screams, “My car!” showing no concern at all that some sad soul just killed themselves in front of him. The moment, and George complaining about it again later, is played for laughs, with the in-studio audience chuckling the whole time. He manages to get an appointment with a hospital administrator, but the suicide is graphically described, again for laughs, before George asks for compensation, only to be denied. Seinfeld gets dark at times (heck, George was relieved when his fiancé died), but a suicide being used as comedy in several scenes is a little uncomfortable to watch today.
The Mohl in “The Bris” Is the Most Annoying Character in ‘Seinfeld’ History
The other plot of “The Bris” has Jerry and Elaine asked to be the godparents of their friend’s son. This excites them rather than disgusts them, but it turns out to be not as great as it seems. Jerry, Elaine, George, and Kramer are later at the friend’s house for the bris, a Jewish celebration where the boy is circumcised, which is done by the mohel, and this episode has one (played by the late Charles Levin). But in Seinfeld, he is the most annoying person you’d ever want to meet. He makes Kenny Bania (Steve Hytner) feel completely normal by comparison.
The mohel shows up late, frustrating Jerry, who doesn’t want to be there after discovering that he’s the one who has to hold the baby during the circumcision. From the moment he walks in, the mohel is loud and abrasive, whining about loud noises, including the baby crying. “It could drive me insane!” he yells before moving on to bitching and moaning about the traffic. He’s so loud that everyone recoils, including the viewer. He doesn’t stop either, moving on to getting worked up over Elaine placing a glass on the table. When he spills his instruments, the mohel says, “I could’ve been a kosher butcher like my brother!” It’s the only remotely funny thing he says. The rest of the time, he’s just a raving, loud man, giving off every stereotype of an exaggerated portrayal of a Jewish man. He’s so utterly annoying that you want him to go away because he’s not entertaining in the slightest. Jason Alexander thought so, too.
The Mohel Offended Jason Alexander So Much that He Went to Larry David
Seinfeld‘s two co-creators, Jerry Seinfeld and Larry David, are both Jewish. Julia Louis-Drefyus and Jason Alexander are Jewish as well, so the series didn’t include an unbearable Jewish character who portrays every negative trope out of prejudice or meanness but as a way of making fun of themselves and how they’re seen. Still, Jason Alexander didn’t find it funny one bit. He’d been outspoken before, threatening to quit Seinfeld in an earlier season when he wasn’t used at all in one episode (and never missed one again), so Alexander had no problem going right to Larry David, the man he was thinly playing as George, and telling him again how offended he was by the mohel. He was written so badly in the original script that Alexander refused to appear in “The Bris” unless the character was toned down.
Sitting down for the Television Academy Foundation Interviews: An Oral History of Television, Alexander called the mohel disgusting in the original script and admitted that he remained disgusting even in the filmed episode. Alexander said he wasn’t against Jewish jokes at all but also realized how uncomfortable a bris and circumcision were for non-Jewish people, so “to make one who was a child-hating, self-loathing, foul-mouthed, incompetent to me was anti-Semitic in a hurtful way.” Alexander explained that he went to Larry David and told him he would be boycotting the episode because he found it offensive. David, at first, didn’t understand Alexander’s criticism, but he agreed to soften the character. Alexander said that he’s still not proud of the portrayal of the character, saying, “It’s not a particularly good element in an otherwise pretty good episode.”
If the mohel was toned down in the revision, you have to wonder just how offensive he originally was. He’s the most obnoxious and angry person in Seinfeld‘s history, which is saying something because the series is filled with obnoxious and angry people. Kudos to Jason Alexander for sticking up for his religion and what he believed was right. It’s the sign of a great actor that a man with so many convictions played a character so well who had none whatsoever.
Seinfeld is available to watch on Netflix in the U.S.
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